This invention relates to an apparatus for cutting open a strap which holds together a textile fiber bale. The apparatus includes a cutting edge which severs the strap essentially in a direction which is perpendicular to the strap length.
Bale straps have been cut for many decades by a hatchet or similar tool. In a known device severance of the strap is achieved by means of a single, high velocity impact directed to a single strap. In such a device where the cutting tool has a narrow cutting edge, complex arrangements, for example, a special pneumatic cylinder, have been necessary to produce the impact. It is a further disadvantage of the prior art cutters of this type that first the exact position of the individual straps has to be separately determined and then the narrow cutter has to be brought step-wise into position at the straps, based on the preceding positional determination.